Injury Update as We Get Ready for Lithuania

February 24th, 2007 | by: Laurie |

The important Euro ‘08 qualifier, France-Lithuania, is four weeks from today. That means it’s time to start looking ahead to what we’ll be seeing in the game. With that in mind, here are a few injury updates:

First, the bad news. Captain Patrick Vieira suffered a thigh injury last week for Inter and is expected to be out for about a month. I’m guessing he won’t be back in time for the France game. Not a good thing.

But we do have some good news. First , from Lyon. Sylvain Wiltord and my favorite uncapped “hopeful” Karim Benzema both played for the first time in ages today in Lyon’s 3-3 draw with Sochaux. Wiltord played the second half and scored a goal in the final minutes. Not a bad way to welcome yourself back. Congratulations, Sylvain! And Karim played up to the 60th minute and apparently played well. My guess is that coach Raymond Domenech won’t want to take the chance of calling him up this soon after his recovery, particularly if Henry, Saha, Anelka, Cisse and Trezeguet all stay healthy. So his first cap probably won’t come yet. But who knows? And there are two more qualifiers coming up in June.

Alou Diarra isn’t back yet, but I think he’s scheduled to be fit and healthy before March.

And in more good news, Lilian Thuram is apparently all better and scheduled to play for Barcelona on Sunday. Barcelona is NOT happy about their Champions League loss this week and is looking to shake things up a bit. Does this mean Lilian will get a regular place in the starting lineup? We can hope!

And William Gallas is apparently well again, although he’s not scheduled to play against Chelsea tomorrow. I think this is a strategic move on Arsene Wenger’s part and not injury-related, but I’m not 100% certain. Barring further injury, though, I’m hoping we can count on William in March.

That’s all the news I have for the moment. I’ll keep you posted whenever I hear anything new.

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MB

Interesting aspect about Vieira potentially missing the game – Who will captain the team? Lillian Thuram? Thierry Henry? David Trezeguet (who captained the team for all of 3 minutes in the World Cup)? My personal hope is that it will be Willy Sagnol, my current favorite Bleu. What do you think Laurie?
http://france.worldcupblog.org Laurie

Good question. I’ve also been wondering about that. I think Thuram would be the logical choice. Although Henry probably thinks differently. (I think it would be really stupid to put Henry in a leadership position after the whole melon énorme event from December.)

And Trezeguet? Poor Trezeguet. Between World Cup and Serie B, all the spark and spirit seems to have gone out of him this year.

I’d also be fine with Sagnol, who will apparently be taking over the captain’s armband at Bayern Munich if Kahn ever actually retires. (Seriously, I think his ego could keep him going for years. Poor Willy.)

But my own opinion is that Thuram is the best choice for pulling the team together.
MB

I agree. Is it just me, or does anyone else agree that this team has sorely lacked leadership ever since Zizou retired? If anyone could pull the team together, it would have to be Thuram. By the way Laurie, a little off topic but did you hear Fabien Barthez actually saved a penalty in a shootout the other day for Nantes?
http://france.worldcupblog.org Laurie

Yes, I DID read that about Barthez! I’m thrilled for the guy. But I didn’t want to jinx him by writing something positive.;-)

I’ve still got my fingers crossed that he’ll be able to save Nantes from relegation.